The International School for Holocaust Studies
Interviews
In this section, we feature discussions with survivors and specialists in Holocaust education. While appropriate for the general public, all of the articles highlight important aspects of history, study, and awareness. Relevant links on the side of each page will direct you to specific resources. This page will be updated regularly as the staff at the International School for Holocaust Studies prepares more interviews.
- Nina Springer-Aharoni, Curator of Films and Photos in the Yad Vashem Museum
- Dr. Havi Dreifuss, Historian
- Yitzhak Livnat and Chaim Raphael, Survivors
- Dr. Simon Lichman, Poet
- Samuel Willenberg, Survivor of the Treblinka Death Camp
- Benjamin Doron, Child Survivor from Libya
- Israel (Zizi) Lichtenstein, Survivor from France
- Professor Dori Laub, Expert on Interviews and Survivor Testimony
- Artemis Batis Miron, Survivor from Ioannina, Greece
- Davor Bakovic, Son of Yugoslav Partisan and Second-Generation Link to Muslim Righteous Among the Nations
- Dukie Gelber, Survivor from Holland
- Dr. Götz Aly, German Historian and Journalist
- Dr. Doron Avraham, Former Director of the ICHEIC Program for Holocaust Education in Europe, Yad Vashem
- Eliezer Ayalon, Israeli Tour Guide
- Walter Zwi Bacharach, Professor Emeritus of General History
- Michael Goldman-Gilad, Investigative Officer for the Eichmann Trial
- Shulamit Imber, Pedagogical Director of the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
- Yehudit Inbar, Director of the Museums Division at Yad Vashem
- Seven Survivors Speak about their Lives after the Holocaust
- Miriam Ron, Witness to the Events of Kristallnacht
- Hedi Solzbach (Schlanger), Former Prisoner of Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Chava Wolf, Artist
- Ester Golan Talks about her Poetry and the Kindertransport
The Story Behind the Photograph
Excerpts from an Interview with Nina Springer-Aharoni,
Curator of Films and Photos in the Yad Vashem Museum
The subject of photography and the portrayal of the Holocaust presents an intricate web of considerations that touches on potentially explosive subjects like authenticity, identification, Holocaust denial, and historical documentation. Here we present excerpts from an interview with Nina Springer-Aharoni in which these and more subjects are pursued. Ms. Springer-Aharoni is in charge of the photographic documentation in the Yad Vashem Museum...Read more
The Test of Jewish Solidarity
An Interview with Dr. Havi Dreifuss
In this interview, Dr. Havi Dreyfus, a historian, presents a sketch of the cohesion that existed among groups during the time of the Holocaust and, on the other hand, the rupture that occurred in segments of the Jewish society...Read more
"Do you remember that you taught a boy to sing?"
An Interview with Yitzhak Livnat and Chaim Raphael
In this interview, the Holocaust survivors Yitzhak Livnat and Chaim Raphael talk about their own story of human solidarity and brotherhood that became an anchor of compassion in the face of the surrounding atrocities of Auschwitz Birkenau...Read more
The Return to places of former Jewish Life
An Interview with the poet Dr. Simon Lichman
In this interview, the poet Dr. Simon Lichman, talks about his poems, which deal with the return to places of former Jewish life and atrocities during the Holocaust. He shares his feelings and thoughts regarding the loss of family, community, culture and Jewish life as a whole in Europe...
Read more
An Interview with Samuel and Ada Willenberg
In this interview Samuel Willenberg, a survivor of the Treblinka death camp, talks about his artwork. Samuel has created a series of fifteen sculptures that are scenes from Treblinka... Read more
Interview with Benjamin Doron (Dadosh)
Read this interview with Benjamin Doron, a child survivor from Libya who managed to make aliyah to Israel. Read more
“Nobody would have thought then, that I would be here in Israel, and my father would have perished in Auschwitz.”
Interview with Holocaust Survivor Israel (Zizi) Lichtenstein
In an attempt to delve deeper into some of the issues surrounding the Eichmann trial, we have interviewed Professor Dori Laub on the topic of interviewing survivors and obtaining testimony. Dr. Laub was born in Czernowitz, Romania in 1937. With his parents, he was deported to Transnistria in 1942. His father disappeared during a German raid prior to liberation by the Soviets and he and his mother were reunited with his grandparents who had survived in Czernowitz. He immigrated... Read more
"Tell Us What You See"
Interview with Professor Dori Laub, Expert on Interviews and Survivor Testimony
In an attempt to delve deeper into some of the issues surrounding the Eichmann trial, we have interviewed Professor Dori Laub on the topic of interviewing survivors and obtaining testimony. Dr. Laub was born in Czernowitz, Romania in 1937. With his parents, he was deported to Transnistria in 1942. His father disappeared during a German raid prior to liberation by the Soviets and he and his mother were reunited with his grandparents who had survived in Czernowitz. He immigrated... Read more
“For That, It Deserves a Prize”
Interview with Artemis Batis Miron, Survivor from Ioannina, Greece
As a young girl, Artemis Batis was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau where much of her family was killed. Slated for slave labor, she eventually was forced on a death march to the terrible camps of Ravensbrueck and Malchow. In 1946, after her liberation, she made her way to Mandatory Palestine, where she married Yosef Miron. Today, she often tells young people her personal story of persecution under the Nazis and the tragedy of the Ioanninote Jews... Read more
“I Have This Paper which I Know Comes from Israel”
Interview with Davor Bakovic, Son of Yugoslav Partisan and Second-Generation Link to Muslim Righteous Among the Nations
Davor Bakovic has provided us with two special aspects of the Balkan arena in the Holocaust and its aftermath. His mother, Mira, was saved during the Holocaust by a Righteous Gentile in Bosnia and shortly after she passed away in 1998, some fifty years later, there was an unexpected development involving the children of the savior and the saved... Read more
“I Have to Look Up Into Heaven”
Interview with Dukie Gelber, Survivor from Holland
Mr. Gelber, originally from Holland, spent two years in German concentration camps as a child (Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen). Liberated by the Red Army, he and his family returned to Holland. His parents were active Zionists; Mr. Gelber moved to Israel at the age of 18 and did his army service while at a kibbutz, and his parents emigrated to Israel in 1952... Read more
“The Uneasy Closeness to Ourselves”
Interview with Dr. Götz Aly, German Historian and Journalist
Dr. Götz Aly is a German historian and journalist researching the Holocaust and German history during the Nazi period. He is presently researching the survivors’ return home to Europe after the Holocaust, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research. Dr. Aly shares insight into growing up in postwar Germany... Read more
"To Transmit What They Have Learned"
Interview with Dr. Doron Avraham, former Director of the ICHEIC Program for Holocaust Education in Europe at Yad Vashem
Dr. Avraham shares his insight into the creation and workings of the ICHEIC program in the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. His overview remains inspiring for his colleagues in the European Department and around the world, who continue to meet and exceed... Read more
"My Life is Still a Continuing Defeat for the Nazis who Hoped to Destroy Us"
Interview with Eliezer Ayalon, Israeli Tour Guide
Mr. Ayalon discusses Israeli society, army service, and frameworks for telling his story as a survivor and as an educator. He was was born in Radom, Poland and lived in the ghetto; imprisoned in five different camps; liberated after a death march; arrived in Palestine in 1945... Read more
"I Can Only Share This with Myself"
Interview with Zwi Bacharach, Prof. Emeritus of General History
Professor Bacharach reveals his thoughts on his own postwar experiences, the difficulties in telling his story, the impact on his religious outlook, and current events. He was born in Hanau, Germany in 1928; captured with his family in Holland in 1942; sent to Westerbork, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz-Birkenau; immigrated to Palestine in 1946... Read more
"In One Sentence, I Felt Like I was Going Through the Holocaust All Over Again"
Michael Goldman-Gilad, Eichmann Trial Investigative Officer
Mr. Goldman-Gilad discusses his time in Bureau 06, the process leading up to the trial, and his own feelings as a Holocaust survivor collecting evidence against a Nazi war criminal. He was born in 1925 in Katowice, Poland; sent to Auschwitz; fought in the Soviet army; escaped a death march... Read more
How Do You Teach Children About the Holocaust?
Interview with Shulamit Imber, Pedagogical Director of the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
Many complex questions arise when approaching the topic of Holocaust education for children: Where do we start? What can we tell children and what should we avoid? What should our educational goals be? Mrs. Imber explains the philosophy of the ISHS and pedagogy... Read more
"The Female Tradition was Unbroken and Would Not be Broken"
Interview with Ms. Yehudit Inbar, Director of the Museums Division at Yad Vashem
Ms. Inbar discusses the exhibition "Spots of Light: Women in the Holocaust". A respected curator, writer, and lecturer, she makes bold presentation choices that reveal complexities in the area where history, emotion, and personality meet... Read more
"The Road Ahead"
Survivors Speak about Their Lives after the Holocaust
The postwar contributions of Holocaust survivors within Israeli society cannot be overstated. We have interviewed seven survivors living in Israel, focusing on their thoughts and experiences after the Holocaust. When meeting Holocaust survivors today, we tend to learn only about their experiences during that period... Read more
"This is Not the Story of Someone Else"
Interview with Miriam Ron, Witness to the Events of Kristallnacht
Mrs. Ron discusses her experiences and memories surrounding Kristallnacht, the expulsion to Zbaszyn, and her childhood in Germany. She was born in Leipzig in 1924. Her family was very accustomed to German culture, and on good terms with their neighborhood's non-Jewish residents... Read more
"What My Children Knew About the Holocaust, They Knew from Me"
Interview with Hedi Solzbach (Schlanger)
While focusing on the touching wartime story of Hedi Solzbach, several issues arise which are linked to the female experience in the Holocaust. Thus, for instance, we hear about the day-to-day banter in the women's block at Birkenau, the humiliation of nakedness and fear of... Read more
"With Colors I Express Beauty; With Poems I Express Pain"
Interview with Chava Wolf, Artist
Chava Wolf-Wijnitzer is a child Holocaust survivor and an artist, born in northern Bukovina (today's Ukraine, near the border of Romania). Her paintings and poems deal with her childhood, mostly spent in ghettos in Transnistria. We discuss her early years, her life, and her creations... Read more
Interview with Ester Golan
In this interview, the Holocaust survivor Ester Golan, talks about her poetry and the Kindertransport. Read more
